West Coast groundfish fishing deemed sustainable

A mainstay West Coast fishery is now certified sustainable after diminished stocks 14 years ago forced the federal government to declare a disaster.

The Marine Stewardship Council announced today in Portland that 13 groundfish species caught by West Coast trawler fishermen will be designated sustainable.

The decision will likely make the fishery more marketable.

The MSC certified its first rockfish species and a skate species as sustainable among other types of bottom-dwelling fish.

Fishermen, fishery managers, the Environmental Defense Fund and federal agencies established the Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program in 2011 to rejuvenate groundfish stocks.

“We’ve changed and adapted a lot in the last 10 to 15 years or more and the fishery has changed a lot,” said Paul Kujala, Warrenton commissioner for the Oregon Trawl Commission and captain of the Cape Windy. “We’re getting some recognition for that.”